Inside the Little Plastic Castle

Wow I loved this doc! Is there anybody out there?, 87 minutes, UK, 2023. Directed by Ella Glendining, in English with precise captions and audio description.

Blurb:

Born with a rare disability, filmmaker Ella Glendining wonders if there is anyone who can share the experience of living in a body like hers. This simple question—one which non disabled people take for granted, leads to a journey to not only others who live like her—but to the realization that meeting them changes how she views herself in the world, as well as many surprises along the way.

Glendining includes archival footage of her own childhood (older videotapes with flashing lights across the bottom of the screen) as well as horrifying evidence of rank bigotry that disabled kids in the UK. She talks about loving bodies, her own and others’. She documents accepting parenting from her own youth and with her own child, as well as the challenges of wanting to have a "perfect birth" (no drugs, no knives). She demonstrates access intimacy and cross-disability solidarity, interacts with one great doctor and one surgeon-on-a-mission to normalize kids through massive pain, and finally answers the title question yes! meeting three people with bodies similar to hers. I got bi vibes from the doc but I don’t remember her explicitly coming out. In this extensive interview at Diva Magazine, she does explore her bisexuality: https://diva-magazine.com/2023/11/13/ella-glendining-is-there-anybody-out-there/.

I want every parent of a kid with orthopedic impairments to watch this film today, before they ponder any more "treatments." It would also be a great discussion starter for a classroom or activist group.

( Where to watch and trailer )

You’re So Brave I’d Rather Be Dead

I love Barry Deutsch (aka Ampersand)’s cartoon style: ligne claire with bodies that look real, including many fat folks like him. Most recently is his excellent 6-panel cartoon on the endless theme of non-disabled people telling us "I’d rather be dead than live your life."

https://amptoons.com/blog/?p=25717
Images with full description as well as DVD commentary on how he came to create it.

NYTimes Sunday Magazine in Paper Braille!

Since August 2016, the NYTimes has published a Disability op-ed at least monthly.§ The vast majority of contributors bring a social justice perspective on living with impairment in a disabling society.

The NY Times’ Sunday Magazine this week is an all-disability issue, celebrating the ADA’s 30th anniversary. Thanks to yourlibrarian for letting me know they’ve been making a newspaper-wide push for accessibility, including producing braille editions of the Sunday special. (I was pleased to discover that they’ve been captioning all their videos for the last few years.)

https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/07/the-new-york-times-special-section-on-disability-is-available-in-braille-and-audio-and-has-its-own-style-guide/

Mighty Painters Tape

One of the joys of working on WisCon access was deploying blue painter’s tape to create a reality that worked for all of us. Blue tape marks wheelchair parking spaces in program rooms, front row seating for those who need it, and keep-clear aisles to improve traffic flow.

My favorite podcast hosts an article on painter’s tape creating physical distancing in public spaces

Absent context, images from the Tape_Measures feed on Instagram could look like a series of art interventions. In light of a global disease outbreak, though, they are clearly signs of the times showcasing how a low-budget tool can help reinforce social distancing practices.

https://99percentinvisible.org/article/roll-tape-documenting-ad-hoc-measures-to-encourage-social-distancing/

tape_measures

Better Batteries, Better Wheeling

New Mobility magazine focuses on wheelchair users, particularly power. I published an article there in 1999! Now published by the United Spinal Association It’s free, it’s got lots of detailed information, and stories from wheelers around the world. (Sadly not a lot of service-journalism on wheelchair manufacturers. They would be the #1 advertisers, of course.)

This article explores the fundamental differences between the very heavy deep-cycle marine batteries in traditional powerchairs, and the much lighter laptop-like lithium batteries powering the Whill CI, SmartDrive, and the new under-60 pound folding personal mobility devices.

[gear hacker] Mackay estimates he gets 30 miles on one charge, which is about the same distance he expects from his supplemental 24-volt, 75-amp-hour, lithium-ion marine battery — but the similarities stop there. The lithium-ion one weighs 70% less than its lead acid counterparts. Additionally, the two power sources deliver their charges very differently.

Lithium-ion batteries maintain max power output until they are depleted, whereas lead-acids put out less power as they near empty, resulting in a noticeable slowing of the chair. “In my experience, the lithium-ion battery gives me the same range as lead-acid. But because it puts out full power until it quits, it gives me an average of 1 mile per hour extra speed over a course of 20 miles,” says Mackay.

https://www.newmobility.com/2020/07/better-batteries-better-wheeling/

§ Marking a welcome 180° swerve away from the Times I grew up with — where the only disability coverage appeared in the heart-breaking inspo-porn-fest that was the NYTimes Neediest Cases.

Cassandra Hartblay responds to yet another design school challenge informed by zero experience or input from actual wheelchair users.
Originally a Twitter thread in dialog with Louise Hickman _louhicky. Hooray for the Critical Design Lab folks who preserve it on their blog!

CDL member CHartblay reflects on the values and priorities assigned to assistive technologies, coining the term criptic innovation, to describe "design innovations that a crip user immediately sees as privileging ableist values over others."

( 166 words of more context )

The Critical Design Lab examines assistive technology with a disability justice perspective, with 12 projects currently as well as a blog and a podcast (with complete transcripts, naturally)
https://www.mapping-access.com/podcast

But relentless optimism is making me cranky. The latest was yet another person with the grand idea to crowd-source accessibility info! with an app! Oh wait! this time Google is asking us to contribute our experiences.

This is a massive waste of time.

Instead of telling people what’s accessible, let’s signpost the places we CAN’T get into, the services that DON’T take our needs into account.

“Enabling Whom? Critical Disability Studies Now” Lateral 5.1 (2016)

( tl;dr: Disabled people face more pressure on every side and yet Disability Studies as a discipline is being more accepted )

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My own ableism, my own class squeamishness, and bigotry, my interpretation of his religiosity as distasteful insanity, had led me to dismiss the man. I had excluded him from our joint rescue plan--indeed, had understood him as something to be rescued from--and ignored his offer to gift me with help and rescue.
quote ends

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Each form of social bigotry has its distinctive personality and its unique set of intertwining evils. ( excerpt and context )

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No wonder people who are recently disabled have such a tough time with disability - not because of the reality of the disability, although that takes getting used to without a doubt, but because of the voices, voices, voices of people throwing pity and sorrow and sadness onto a situation. How do you dig yourself out of a tough situation if people keep dumping their own shit into the hole?

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This is the continual battle against the normate space invaders. This is why accessible design and construction isn't enough.

If you think this barrier wasn't really created on purpose, that it's just the thoughtlessness of the ill-informed, I know that's not the case. I've visited this particular shop to inform them they've recreated barriers unnecessarily, and asked them to stop destroying the built-in accessibility. Their response is Oh, don't worry, we'll be happy to help if you just ask.

Nondisabled people may wonder, so what's so hard about asking? Great effort has been made to create accessible environments. Why should this thoughtless disablism require us to ask permission over and over? We are here; we are the public, as Dave Hingsburger put it so eloquently. When nondisabled people recolonize our spaces, we must regroup, react, and respond.